Lesson 68: Enduring Hardship
As Christians we need to continually, in all circumstances, give thanks to God for giving us faith to believe in Christ as our Savior. All who try to live godly lives will experience persecution by satan, the ruler of this world, who wants to destroy God’s people. He does this by bringing about hardships in our lives so that we will become discouraged and lose faith. God may allow certain hardships to come into our lives in order that we will grow and persevere in our faith. In this way He helps us to become strong, persevering and patient. The Apostle Paul said he delighted in hardship because although they were weakening him, he was growing stronger in his faith. So, God often uses satan’s evil intentions to destroy us for our good, to help us become mature and complete. God wants us to bear fruit in our lives. We do this by giving thanks to God for our salvation and allowing Him to use temptations and troubles to grow in perseverance because this brings increased knowledge of God. As we grow in our knowledge of God in this manner, and by continually reading His word and learning His will, our ability to be fruitful will increase. So that’s how we can avoid being overwhelmed by the struggles of this life, by knowing that they are temporary, and are being used by God to help us grow in Christ-likeness. The struggles of this life are small and of short duration compared to the eternal joy we will have in God’s kingdom. And so we need to continually pray with thanksgiving, read our Bible, attend a Bible-preaching church, and encourage others to grow in faith. The four cornerstones of our faith: 1) Continual thanksgiving to God, 2) Becoming strong and persevering by facing troubles in our life as opportunities for growth, 3) Growing in our knowledge of God by the last two steps and by continually and repeatedly reading our Bible, which will help us 4) Bear fruit for God.